Doug Gordon

For those of you on Facebook, there's a group called "Cincinnati Then and Now" that posts an endless stream of old Cincinnati photos. A few weeks ago, someone started posting a series of 1950s Reds baseball cards that really brought back a lot of old memories of that team and games at Crosley Field.

Also interesting to see that the era we grew up in is now "ancient history" to many...

Philip Spiess

Doug:  Thank you for posting this.  My wife, who is on Facebook, has been trying to get me on Facebook for some time.  I have a presence there (registered?), but have never actually posted anything (I keep hearing that some peoples' posts are happy, but that many are attacking and negative).  Anyhow, she gets a posting from Portsmouth, New Hampshire (her home town), that gives history and photos and so on.  So maybe I should get on line on Facebook?  (I have many historical photographs of Cincinnnati in my collection, as you might guess.)

As to "ancient history" -- Yah!  "We are the champions!"  (Mud on their faces!)  Just because the young don't study history (theirs, ours, anybody's), doesn't mean that it is not relevant!  My god!  The Middle Schoolers I taught History to from 2005 to 2013 loved it, as I taught it -- stories, not just facts.  It made them relevant.

Yes, we are old now -- much to my great surprise (how has that happened so quickly?) -- but we have affected our era in history one way or another, and that is part of the historical record.  We are still here, and so we must put down and transmit that which we know and remember from our own experience -- as I have tried to do on this Forum site.  -- Spiess

Philip Spiess

Our classmate, correspondent, and ex-patriate bon-vivant, Jerry Ochs, informs me that June 9 (Saturday) is "World Gin Day."  I approach this news with a mild surmise, marveling that there is such a thing as "world gin"  (one knows of Dutch Gin, a.k.a. "Genever," and the several kinds of English gin, "London Dry" and the older and sweeter "Old Tom," as well as the much stronger "Plymouth Gin," to say nothing of the various imitations made here in the good old U. S. of A., but the term "world gin" boggles the imagin-nation).

However, in honor of the occasion, and as a bibliophilic bibulous imbiber, I pass along to you, my fellow classmates, three of my favorite Gin recipes. The first recipe Cedric Dickens, Charles Dickens' great-grandson, advised me to be an excellent remedy for a cold, though it can be taken at any time, to great effect, as a "joy enhancer."  The second recipe is a late-19th-Century cocktail originally styled a "Bittered Sling." The third recipe is definitely a British import (as a result of our Prohibition), coming as it does from the Cafe Royal Bar Book (1937, although the drink was developed somewhat earlier; by the way, the Cafe Royal, just off Piccadilly Circus, was a hangout of Oscar Wilde and James Whistler and that crowd from the Aesthetic Movement, but it still exists, and you can still dine there, as I have); the drink is named for the futuristic streamlined train, The Twentieth-Century Limited (express between New York and Chicago) and, as one writer says, gives us an idea of "what Art Deco tastes like."

GIN PUNCH  (Mr. Micawber's Favorite, according to Cedric Dickens):

Juice of half a Lemon     Pinch of Ground Cinnamon     1 whole Clove     1 teaspoon of Brown Sugar  1 teaspoon of Honey     1 large measure of sweet dark Madeira Wine     1 large measure of Dry Gin  Grated Nutmeg     Boiling Water     1 Cinnamon Stick

Into a warm tumbler put the juice of half a lemon, the cinnamon and clove, and the sugar and honey.  Fill the glass (or mug) three-quarters with boiling water, add the Madeira and Gin, and stir with a stick of cinnamon.  Grate the nutmeg thereon and drink quickly.  To quote Cedric Dickens, "The recipe doesn't sound very exciting, but the product is exquisite."

GIN SLING:

1 and a half ounces of Dry Gin     1 ounce of Sweet (Italian) Vermouth     Three-fourths ounce of fresh Lemon Juice     1 ounce of Simple Syrup     1 (or 2) dashes of Angostura Bitters     Soda Water (Club Soda)     Lemon Peel Spiral for Garnish

Shake all of the ingredients, except for the soda water, with ice in a cocktail shaker and strain over ice into a Collins (i.e., tallish) glass.  Top-up glass with the soda water.  Garnish with the spiral of lemon peel, and enjoy on a hot summer's day.

TWENTIETH CENTURY COCKTAIL:

1 and a half ounces of Dry Gin     Three-fourths ounce of Lillet Blanc [essential in this drink and the equally splendid "Vesper," the drink of James Bond]     One-half ounce of Light (White) Creme de Cacao [the Dark, or Brown, Creme de Cacao will do as well; the drink will just look a little muddier] Three-fourths ounce of fresh Lemon Juice     Twist of Lemon as Garnish

Shake all ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker and strain into a cocktail glass; garnish with the twist of lemon.  [Note:  The taste of this cocktail borders on the unusual:  although it mostly tastes like a desirable lemonade, the Creme de Cacao gives it somewhat an aftertaste of chocolate.  If you like this (I do), go with it; if the chocolate taste is too pronounced for you, cut back slightly on the Creme de Cacao.]

Cheers!  -- Philip

Jerry Ochs

Does anybody on this forum use a fountain pen on a daily basis?  Weren't we told at WHHS that ballpoint pens leak and smear, so their use was forbidden?  While we are on the subject of writing manually, can your children or grandchildren or any younger family members use cursive script?  O tempora O mores indeed.

Philip Spiess

I happily used fountain pens for many years (they flowed so nicely!), until things reached such a pass that I couldn't get parts -- or sometimes even ink -- for them.  Hence, ball point pens, which sometimes write and sometimes don't.  But they can smear:  they get those little balls of (I suppose it's) greasy ink on the end of them, which you then try to wipe off on a napkin or something (sort of like a booger).  [You may think that's funny, but it's snot.]

Here in northern Virginia, outside of Washington, D. C., my sister Barbara (WHHS Class of '63) and her daughter Jennifer Neel, were so disgusted with the fact that the Fairfax County and Arlington County public schools no longer taught cursive writing that they began teaching a course on it after school at our church (Presbyterian -- you know those Scots have always been into education; I'm educating myself with some Scotch right now), and many kids signed up (or perhaps were signed up by their parents).

As to me ("O tempora!  O mores!"), I find that I cannot do handwriting as clearly as I used to, regardless of what type of pen I use.  I've got a shaky script (sort of like "The Walnuts" in its early stages, eh, Jon Marks?).  I try to insist (at least to myself) that this is not old age creeping up on me like tight underwear, but rather a general disuse of actual handwriting, due to excessive use of the word prosessor (which you are reading right now).  Of course, that excessive use required my right wrist to be operated on last year for carpel tunnel syndrome. . . .

Paul Simons

Nelson Abanto

I noticed that the Red’s pitcher hit a grand slam yesterday.  The last Red Pitcher to that was Bob Purkey at Crosley field in 1959.  I was there!

Jerry Ochs

Thanks a lump, Paul.  Now I can't get the phrase "all counts hands down" out of my mind, like a catchy tune on the radio.  By the way, Pilot is a Japanese brand.  We probably have three or four dozen lying around the house.  My wife owns a Mont Blanc fountain pen that she received as a gift when she entered junior high school.  We went to buy some genuine Mont Blanc ink for it and were amazed at the prices of the high-end pen models as well as the price of the ink.  "God's teeth!" I shouted.  Fortunately, the clerk did not understand English. 

Chuck Cole

My handwriting has actually improved.  In fact, at North Avondale I could do no better than a C in handwriting so I rarely got the principal to sign a small statement of praise on my report card--you had to have only As and Bs.  It's kind of outrageous that handwriting was graded since some of us had pretty sketchy small motor skills at that time in our lives.

If my memory serves me well, quill pens and india ink were on our school supplies list at the start of 7th grade and the desks even had round openings for inkwells.  I don't remember using the quill pens much.  At that time, ball point pens had just appeared and were quite expensive.  Lots of people had fountain pens, and cartridge pens became very popular.  Ball point pens and fountain/cartridge pens shared the ability to ruin a pair of pants.

Jerry Ochs

Perhaps Chuck should have invested in pocket protector shares.  I too remember the inkwell holes in the upper right corner of some desks but I don't remember shopping for quill pens.  Just the other day I was about to fill out a form using a pen filled with blue ink when my wife stopped me and admonished me:  "Have you taken leave of your senses?"  (but in Japanese)  In reply I asked her why they produce blue ink if it is never appropriate to write with blue ink.  Does anybody know the answer?  She didn't.

Paul Simons

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

I loved Pilot pens! I used to buy them by the box at the local office supply store, long before Staples and Office Depot began marketing to businesses. I used them until Uniball  came out with the extra fine SIGNO gel pen with ink that could not be erased by solvents. 

I always had trouble writing with a fountain pen. I always applied too much pressure and damaged the nib especially on “good” pens with the gold nibs. I do recall that we had to bring a bottle of ink to school and a box of clear plastic fountain pens with attached metal nibs. I poked holes in paper with those babies! I loved peacock blue ink!

Paul Simons

Jerry Ochs

I think the nib on a new fountain pen needs to be broken in.  The scratchy ones will write more and more smoothly as time goes on.  The Pilot pen model I use most frequently is called the Vcorn here in Japan.  The water-based ink flows out of a conical nib; it writes as smoothly as a fountain pen.  I bought a tiny bottle of ink in a bargain bin and after filling a fountain pen with it, I discovered the color was grey.  At first I thought I hadn't put in enough ink, but then I read the tiny words on the tiny label on the ink bottle; Color: Pearl Grey.

Philip Spiess

Chuck Cole:  What the hell is this with "quill pens"?  They haven't been used since the 18th-century (or perhaps the early 19th-century)!  Gold and/or steel pens came in then (this is your class's cultural historian speaking).  Quill pens are made out of goose feathers and trimmed into pen points (nibs) by what are called "pen knives."  (We dealt with none of this at WHHS.)  Yes, we did have ink wells in many of our desks at WHHS, but I do not recall any actual ink wells being filled with ink in them (do you?).

India ink was used (I still use it) for Industrial drafting (cf., Mr. Ahlert), and for certain types of creative drawing (I used it a lot for that in my WHHS years, including for a poster for a required project in Mr. Counts' Driver's Ed course).

Ballpoint pens expensive? Hmm.  Yes, cartridge pens were rapidly replacing fountain pens; and yes, cartridge pens and others could really ruin pants (or shirts)!

And then, Blue ink versus Black ink:  blue ink was the standard for class room work (I believe); black ink was for  "official documents" (did we have any of those in those days?).

Paul:  Don't start with parchment; I'll get to that at another time.  And yes, our WHHS math pads stood up to fountain pens; I wrote much (often satirical) poetry on them in those days, as Dale Gieringer and Jeffrey Rosen will attest.

P. S. :  I still use India Ink for artistic drawings that I do; maybe I'll post some soon on this Forum (Dave Buchholz thinks we should post any art work that we do on this site, and he's right).

Paul Simons

Dale Gieringer

  Phil is right that none of us used quill pens at school.  However, at Westwood elementary school, we were taught to use stick pens.   You had to dip them every few letters in the inkwell in order to replenish them.  And yes, we did have filled inkwells in elementary school, though not at WHHS.  As I recall, they usually held bottles of blue ink, not India ink.  The stick pens were a pain in the butt to use, but produced more artistic lines than the ball points, which left ugly blotches. Therefore, I switched to cartridge fountain pens when we were at WHHS and continued to use them in college.   Yes, they worked well on math pads.   At some point many moons ago I switched again to the new flair tip pins, which allow for more stylistic lines than ballpoints.  I don't know whether cartridge pens are still available.  

Stephen (Steve) Dixon

In re blue ink:

In the early days of the photocopying machine, when black on white was the only way a 'Xerox' could be produced, the requirement on all legal documents was to sign in blue ink. It was presumed to serve as a guarantee of an original document.

Even after color copiers came along, many documents continued to call for Blue ink only.

Now, we can sing real estate closing documents by clicking a box on the computer screen and okaying a "yes it's really me" statement.

Philip Spiess

Paul:  Since you mentioned me, I'll note that oak galls are abnormal plant tissue swellings caused by minute worms infesting the stems; the crushing of these galls produces a very dark brown ink, almost black in color, which was practically the standard in ink used for official purposes at the time of the Revolution -- hence used for our Declaration of Independence and Constitution, written on parchment (the permanent medium for documents).  Their serious fading, particularly of the Declaration, was due to their being exposed to violent sunlight, first in the Capitol's "Iron" Library, then in the Library of Congress's original building (in a wall cabinet with doors that were only closed at night), and finally in the National Archives building (built in the 1930s), where they still reside, housed now in environmentally inert and (supposedly) bomb-proof cases which descend every night for security into the basement of the building (Nicholas Cage's suspense movies notwithstanding).

Stephen:  It has always stunned me to see how many xerox machines fail to capture (i.e., reproduce) blue ink, either faintly or not at all (they have gotten better at this).  On another note, when I first worked at the Cincinnati Historical Society, in the mid-1960s, the copying machine they had was a Dennison Copier (rather than Xerox), into which you first had to put a copying sheet of some thin material which would capture your copy, after which you had to put that material through the printer again with the printing paper in order to get your copy.  This was a particularly harrowing exercise if you were trying to copy something from 19th-century Cincinnati newspapers (bound into folio volumes), where you could only fit a quarter of the page onto the copying machine at a time (with the staff librarians jabbering at you that you were destroying the newspapers -- luckily, most of them were printed on rag paper, but the ones printed on wood pulp paper after the 1870s, and yellowed by age, disintegrated pretty rapidly under my touch, due to the acid in the paper).

Paul Simons

This image should clarify some of the problems that good, well made ballpoint pens have solved.

It's from "Roughing It" by Mark Twain. See below for several 'translations' quoted by Twain, which are best when read aloud..

"Poultices do sometimes choke swine; tulips reduce posterity; causes leather to resist. Our notions empower wisdom, her let's afford while we can. Butter but any cakes, fill any undertaker, we'll wean him from his filly. We feel hot. Yrxwly, HEVACE EVEELOJ.'

"Polygamy dissembles majesty; extracts redeem polarity; causes hitherto exist. Ovations pursue wisdom, or warts inherit and condemn. Boston, botany, cakes, folony undertakes, but who shall allay? We fear not. Yrxwly, HEVACE EVEELOJ.'

"Bolivia extemporizes mackerel; borax esteems polygamy; sausages wither in the east. Creation perdu, is done; for woes inherent one can damn. Buttons, buttons, corks, geology underrates but we shall allay. My beer's out. Yrxwly, HEVACE EVEELOJ.'

"Potations do sometimes wake wines; turnips restrain passion; causes necessary to state. Infest the poor widow; her lord's effects will be void. But dirt, bathing, etc., etc., followed unfairly, will worm him from his folly--so swear not. Yrxwly, HEVACE EVEELOJ.'

AND - the ACTUAL verbiage - 'Potatoes do sometimes make vines; turnips remain passive: cause unnecessary to state. Inform the poor widow her lad's efforts will be vain. But diet, bathing, etc. etc., followed uniformly, will wean him from his folly--so fear not. Yours, HORACE GREELEY.'

Philip Spiess

Paul Simons and Chuck Cole:  Your references to pens messing up shirts and/or pants pockets suddenly reminded me of yet another (minor) cultural phenomenon:  the "amazing, magical disappearing ink!"  I don't know what the hell it was (a derivative of Jell-O?  a by-product of NASA's early space food?), but I had some, somehow, in my early days in college.  You sprayed or shot it from your "pen" (what was that missile, anyway?) onto the victim's -- in my case, fraternity brother's -- (preferably white) shirt, where it remained a messy, vulgar blot of ink-looking-like blue disaster (and he's screaming at you, right?) -- until it suddenly disappeared, vanished, was, perhaps, absorbed into the ether; who knew?  Where did it go?  Did it wash out of the shirt in the wash?  Again, who knew?  It was almost as mysterious as "flash paper," with which I had great fun in my fraternity days.  (You people who were astounded that I was a fraternity member, let alone president of my fraternity, you have no idea.)

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Philip Spiess

Jerry:

Either you or they (the WHHS cooks) confused Proust's madeleine with consomme madrilene.

Philip Spiess

(Not nauseous?)

But seriously, folks, how have smells and / or tastes affected your memory, conjuring up surprising recollections of incidents in your past?

For myself, one Spring night in my graduate days in Delaware (1968-1970), I was walking along a street in the dark (going, of course, to a Bierstube to carouse with friends -- in the case of Newark, Delaware, this was the Deer Park Inn), when I was suddenly overcome with an intense smell of lilacs in bloom, which brought on memories of my grandmother's backyard in Clifton and somehow feelings of nostalgia and, yes, regret for a part of my life that I knew I would never experience again.  It was intense and personal and wonderful and sorrowful.  (And yes, it made me drink a lot of beer that night!)

Let's hear your stories; I don't want to be the only one on this site laying my heart on my sleeve.

Richard Winter (Winter)

The first time I heard the song “American Pie” — some time in the 70’s when high school already seemed a long time ago — I immediately had some powerful sensory memories of Walnut Hills.  

The line “the halftime air was sweet perfume” reminded me of walking behind the stands on the football field at Walnut Hills, during a game, and smelling perfume wafting down from the spectators above.  Somehow the perfume in the autumn air and the atmosphere of a high school football game was a powerful experience for this high school boy.   I had completely forgotten that moment until the song brought it back to mind years later so strongly that I was almost there.

The entire song, which describes “the day the music died” in 1959, was taking me back to high school almost from the beginning.   I also loved the verse, “Well I know that you’re in love with him, cause I saw you dancin in the gym, you both kicked off your shoes, Man I dig those rhythm and blues”, which took me right back to those dances we had, watching people kick off their shoes to dance better.   

Am I right in remembering that the dances were after school in the lunchroom?